“The motorcycle is equipped with eight cameras that detect all kinds of traffic violations. It is driven by an officer, but we are working to make it autonomous and ready for service by 2020,” Hussein told AFP.

Another futuristic machine presented at GITEX was a hybrid drone-motorcycle, with rotors instead of wheels that allow it to fly.

Russian-made, the machine, which can fly at an altitude of five metres for up to 25 minutes, is being tested to determine its future potential use.

“We could use it to access hard-to-reach places, like traffic jams,” said a second police officer, Ali Ahmed Mohamed.

Yet another innovation, this one intended to cut time and human energy at airports, was a 15-second security and customs portal.

Customs and border agents would be replaced by a tunnel that would automatically scan and collect the biometric data of passengers.

They would already have their boarding passes in hand, having entered their data in a special electric taxi en route.

This would be especially useful at Dubai International Airport, which retained its position as the world’s busiest hub for international passengers in 2016, handling 83.6 million travellers.

Unlike its fellow members of the United Arab Emirates, Dubai is not dependent on revenues from oil and gas, with an economy that is the most diversified in the Gulf.

For the launch of this year’s GITEX, Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum made clear he sees the emirate’s future in technology.

“We are embarking on a technological revolution in our work, in our lives and in our services,” he said on Twitter.

“Robots, artificial intelligence and the Internet are the things that promise us smarter cities and easier lives.”